Tizanidine is one of the three muscle relaxants American prescribers reach for most, and it is genuinely cheap. Medicare Part D covered nearly 7 million tizanidine claims for 2.1 million people in 2024 at an average of $10.97 per claim. A 4 mg tablet reaches the pharmacy at about three cents.
The complication is that tizanidine comes in two forms that are not priced anything alike. Tablets and capsules deliver the same drug on paper, but the capsule costs a pharmacy nearly three times as much, is usually stocked only in large bottles, and can be quoted at three times the tablet price at the counter. Every figure below was researched on September 4, 2026.
What Does Tizanidine Cost Without Insurance?
Acquisition costs come from the CMS National Average Drug Acquisition Cost survey, effective August 19, 2026. Cash prices come from Drugs.com, SingleCare and Cost Plus Drugs, all read September 4, 2026. Medicare figures are the 2024 data year, released June 2026. The middle column shows a representative example, not a computed average.
| Option | Low | Average | High |
|---|---|---|---|
| CMS NADAC acquisition cost, one tablet | $0.03059 (2 mg) | $0.03192 (4 mg) | $0.03192 (4 mg) |
| CMS NADAC acquisition cost, one capsule | $0.08247 (2 mg) | $0.08849 (4 mg) | $0.13340 (6 mg) |
| Cash price, 30 tablets (4 mg) | $4.98 | $5.62 | $10.22 |
| Cash price, 90 tablets (4 mg) | $6.43 | $13.68 | $15.06 |
| Walmart Prescription Program, 2 mg or 4 mg tablet | $9.00 (30 days) | $9.00 (30 days) | $24.00 (90 days) |
| Discount card, 30 tablets (4 mg) | $4.46 | $4.46 | $4.46 |
| Average retail, 30 tablets (4 mg), no card | $49.67 | $49.67 | $49.67 |
| Cash price, 30 capsules (4 mg), from a 150-count bottle | $4.38 | $6.90 | $17.98 |
| Quoted retail for 30 capsules (4 mg) at other pharmacies | $84.00 | $84.00 | $84.00 |
| Brand Zanaflex capsules, per capsule | $3.76 (2 mg) | $4.75 (4 mg) | $7.10 (6 mg) |
| Generic 8 mg capsule, 60 capsules | $2,653.04 | $2,653.04 | $2,653.04 |
The tablet numbers are well corroborated. Four independent sources put a 30-day supply between $4.46 and $10.22, and federal claims data lands in the same place at $10.97 per claim. Anything above about $15 for 30 tablets is a pharmacy markup, not a fact about the drug.
The unhelped counter price is the figure that moves. SingleCare states an average retail price of $49.67 for 30 of the 4 mg tablets, and Cost Plus Drugs quotes the retail price at other pharmacies as $27.30 for the same fill. Those two disagree by nearly twofold, which is itself the point: with no card and no comparison shopping, a three-cent tablet can be sold to you for anywhere between $5 and $50.
What Drives the Price
Tablet versus capsule, which is the trap on this drug. The CMS acquisition survey prices a 4 mg capsule at $0.08849 against $0.03192 for the 4 mg tablet, and the 6 mg capsule at $0.13340. Retail multiplies that gap rather than absorbing it. Cost Plus Drugs charges $6.90 for 30 of the 4 mg capsules against $5.62 for 30 tablets, and lists the price at other pharmacies as $84.00 for the capsules against $27.30 for the tablets. The 6 mg capsule is quoted at $152.10 elsewhere against $8.00 at Cost Plus.
Pack size makes the capsule worse than the per-unit math suggests. Drugs.com lists tizanidine capsules only in 150-count bottles, at $20.56 to $25.37 for the 2 mg and $21.89 to $89.90 for the 4 mg. That works out to $4.38 to $17.98 per 30 capsules, but a pharmacy that has to open a 150-count bottle for a two-week supply often will not price it that way. Tablets, by contrast, are listed at 12, 20, 30, 45, 60 and 90 counts, so a short fill is easy to price.
Strength barely matters for tablets and matters a lot for capsules. The 2 mg and 4 mg tablets cost a pharmacy within a third of a cent of each other. Capsules climb steadily with dose, from $0.08247 at 2 mg to $0.13340 at 6 mg. Then there is the 8 mg capsule, which does not appear in the CMS acquisition survey at all and which Drugs.com lists at $2,653.04 for 60. An oddball strength with almost no supply behind it is the single most expensive thing you can be handed in this drug class.
Brand Zanaflex is still on the market, and it is expensive. Drugs.com listed Zanaflex capsules at $563.93 for 150 of the 2 mg, $712.69 for 150 of the 4 mg and $1,065.00 for 150 of the 6 mg. That is roughly 22 to 27 times the generic capsule at the same count. Medicare Part D paid an average of $525.49 per Zanaflex claim in 2024 across 865 claims, against $10.97 per claim for the generic. No manufacturer coupon or copay card is listed for Zanaflex.
Where you fill it. The same 30 tablets ran $4.46 with a SingleCare card, $5.62 at Cost Plus Drugs before shipping, $9.00 through Walmart’s Prescription Program, and a stated $49.67 at average retail with nothing applied. That is a tenfold spread on an identical product, and none of it reflects quality.
Cash Price vs. Insurance
Tizanidine is one of the clearest cases on this site where paying cash beats using your benefit. If your plan charges a $10 or $15 generic copay, a $4.46 card price or a $5.62 mail-order price wins outright and never touches your pharmacy benefit at all.
The usual tradeoff is real but small here. Money spent outside your plan does not count toward your deductible or out-of-pocket maximum, and you cannot combine a discount card with insurance on the same fill. On a prescription that costs less than a sandwich, that is rarely worth optimizing for. Our cyclobenzaprine cost guide and baclofen cost guide reach the same conclusion for the other two common muscle relaxants, and our gabapentin cost guide covers the drug most often prescribed alongside them.
Insurance matters more if you have been put on the capsule and cannot switch. A cash payer facing an $84 quote for 30 capsules has three moves: ask whether the tablet is acceptable, run a card, or use a mail-order pharmacy that prices the capsule near cost. Brand Zanaflex at $563.93 and up for 150 capsules has no coupon and no published patient assistance route for the uninsured, so cash payers should treat it as off the table.
Tizanidine is also usually prescribed at a visit, and the visit is the bigger bill. Our physical therapy cost guide and chiropractor cost guide cover what typically sits next to this prescription on the same statement. If a quote for any of it looks off, run it through our fair price checker first.
How to Pay Less
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Ask whether the tablet will do before you fill a capsule. This is the biggest single lever on this drug and it costs nothing. The capsule starts 2.8 times higher at wholesale and can be quoted at three times the tablet price at retail. Form is a prescriber decision, not a pharmacy one, so raise it at the appointment rather than at the counter.
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Run a free discount card before you pay. SingleCare’s tizanidine page, prices updated September 4, 2026, showed $4.46 for 30 of the 4 mg tablets against a stated average retail price of $49.67. Our comparison of GoodRx vs. SingleCare explains how to price the same prescription both ways and why an online quote can move between visits.
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Use the Walmart program if a card is not an option. Walmart’s Prescription Program drug list, effective March 24, 2025, covers tizanidine 2 mg and 4 mg at $9 for a 30-day supply and $24 for 90 days under Pain Management. It is not the $4 tier, and the capsules are not on the list, but it is a fixed published price you can count on without signing up for anything.
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Price mail order for a 90-day fill. Cost Plus Drugs charged $5.62 for 30 of the 4 mg tablets and $5.38 for 30 of the 2 mg on September 4, 2026, publishing the full breakdown for the 4 mg: $0.54 of manufacturing cost, $0.08 of 15 percent markup, $5.00 of pharmacy labor, and $5.25 of standard shipping added at checkout. That flat labor and shipping structure means larger fills get proportionally cheaper, so a 90-day supply is where mail order wins.
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Refuse an unusual strength without asking about it first. The 8 mg capsule does not appear in CMS’s acquisition survey and is listed at $2,653.04 for 60 capsules. If a prescription lands on an odd strength, ask the pharmacy to quote it before they fill it, and ask the prescriber whether two of a common strength would work instead.
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Get the visit priced too. A free or sliding-scale clinic can often handle the appointment that generates this prescription for a fraction of an urgent care bill. If a clinic or hospital bill has already arrived for more than you expected, our guide to negotiating medical bills covers what to do about it.
Bottom Line
Budget about $5 to $10 for 30 tizanidine tablets and roughly $6 to $24 for 90 days. Treat anything above $15 for a 30-day tablet fill as a reason to run a card or switch pharmacies rather than a fact about the medication.
The number to watch is the form. Capsules cost a pharmacy nearly three times what tablets do, come in bottle sizes that make short fills awkward, and get quoted as high as $84 for 30 where the tablet is $27.30. Brand Zanaflex capsules run $563.93 to $1,065.00 for 150 with no coupon available. In every one of those cases the fix is a question for the prescriber about form and strength, not a different pharmacy.